Are the 2022 Oklahoma Sooners the greatest softball team ever? ESPN analysts think so
Closing out the 2022 college softball season, ESPN gathered their group of analysts to discuss a host of things from 2022 and provide a look ahead to the 2023 season.
The first question they asked their panel of experts was, “Where does this year’s Oklahoma team rank among the best ever?”
Five of the seven analysts on the panel answered with a pretty emphatic yes. “First. The best team of all time. No. 1,” Kayla Braud said on the panel. “They probably overtake … the team from last year. I think that there are some incredible teams who have played, but I don’t remember a time when we’ve seen 1-9 be as good offensively. We’ve seen pitchers that are better and have better performances, but not a whole team like this one. I think you can go back to some of the UCLA and Arizona greats, but in this era of competition, to have somebody come through and dominate this much is pretty rare.”
And she wasn’t alone in saying the 2022 Oklahoma Sooners were the greatest of all-time. Jess Mendoza, Madison Shipman, Amanda Scarborough, and Michele Smith agreed that the Sooners 2022 run was the greatest.
Beth Mowins, who said Tiare Jennings is the frontrunner for 2023 collegiate player of the year, and Jenny Dalton-Hill hedged a little, including former UCLA and Arizona teams from the 90s alongside the Sooners.
Mowins argued, “I think this year’s team and last year’s team are very comparable. You have to go back to those ’90s Arizona teams that could have won five championships in a row — and that lineup was just a monster. I think those two belong with the ’92 UCLA team that lost only twice all year.”
The “greatest of all-time discussions” are always a difficult one, but what feels different about the 2022 Oklahoma Sooners and the great teams of the 90s is the parity in the sport of college softball in today’s game. While Oklahoma has been dominant for the last couple of seasons, the game has a much better depth of teams and talent today as the game has grown over the last thirty years, thanks in large part to the UCLA and Arizona teams of the past.
Not only were they dominant offensively, but the Sooners led the nation in ERA and won 67% of their games in run-rule fashion. Jocelyn Alo was the headliner, but as Shipman put it, “It’s amazing how many times, when they swing, they are perfectly on time and they hit the ball so solid, at such a consistent clip 1-9 throughout their offense.” And it’s the 1-9 aspect of the Oklahoma Sooners that has made them so good the last several seasons.
As much as the top of the order can hurt you, even when they’re not on (which is rare) the bottom half of the lineup can win Oklahoma a lot of games.
The depth in the lineup, the pitching rotation of Hope Trautwein, Jordy Bahl, and Nicole May held sub-1.00 ERA’s for much of the 2022 season and made shutouts the norm.
While winning has become the norm for Oklahoma Softball, how they won in 2022 was a sight to behold. They were dominant at just about every turn on their way to back-to-back national championships. The No. 1 team in the country during the preseason, carried that title through Oklahoma City and went the distance as the No. 1 team in the country. Patty Gasso and Oklahoma have set the standard that everyone’s chasing and there’s no reason to believe they’re going to slow down anytime soon.
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